Wednesday, April 30, 2025
4/30/2025
The Miami-Dade County Mental Health Awareness Training for Criminal Justice Stakeholders - Abstract The Miami-Dade County Mental Health Awareness Training for Criminal Justice Stakeholders is designed to prepare and train criminal justice partners on how to appropriately and safely respond to individuals identified with serious mental illnesses (SMI) and co-occurring substance use disorders (SUD). The goal of the project is to improve mental health awareness for criminal justice stakeholders. The objectives of the project will be to train criminal justice stakeholders to recognize the signs and symptoms of SMI as well as learn skills to de-escalate potential volatile interactions. Stakeholders will include law enforcement, court employees, correctional staff, attorneys, social service partners and families. Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training and Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) will be utilized as the evidence-based practice. The project will train 375 stakeholders annually and 1,875 over the 5-year grant period. The over representation of individuals identified with serious mental illnesses and co-occurring substance use disorders involved in the criminal justice system is well documented. In Miami-Dade County, approximately 70% of individuals who live with serious mental illness (SMI) or substance use disorder (SUD) are currently not receiving treatment. As a result, police officers have increasingly become the first, and often only, responders to people in crisis due to untreated mental illnesses. Too often, these encounters result in the arrest and incarceration of individuals for criminal offenses that are directly related to individuals’ psychiatric symptoms and/or life-health contexts (e.g., homelessness, addiction, poverty). Upon entry into the criminal justice system and incarceration, individuals with SMI and co-occurring SUD will interact with a wide variety of people. This population is often misunderstood, alienated and stigmatized. Mental Health Awareness training on how to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness and how to safely and appropriately respond will benefit everyone involved. Training will cover; effective communication techniques, de-escalating crises, promoting mental health literacy, reducing stigma of mental illness, enabling early intervention through recognition of signs and symptoms, and connecting people to care. Community resources to mental health service agencies and other appropriate resources will be provided to all participants of Mental Health Awareness training. In addition, referrals to mental health resources and services will be tracked through the data collection process.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).